search

sketch-city / project-ideas

Running list of all project ideas - pick one and run with it!
http://sketch-city.github.io/project-ideas/
89 stars 7 forks source link

Ally App(App/Alert system for people being harassed/bullied/hate crimes) #73

Open phitott opened 7 years ago

phitott commented 7 years ago

In light of the recent, unsettling trend of harassment, bullying and assaults/hate crimes, was thinking that an "Ally App" might be helpful in sending an alert out, in a certain radius, which would alert allies/supporters to the potential, pending situation - in which they could potentially quickly come to the aid of the potential victim. The importance of this is so that someone who is in trouble or thinking that they may about to be in trouble, could quickly push an alert, where allies/supporters with the app in the determined radius could come to the aid of the person, as to ward off any potential threat; to video; to call 911; to provide emotional support afterwards, etc... App would pinpoint location via gps.

I believe there would need to be safeguards on who was able to download the app somehow, whether that's through invitation only or by being approved by friends/app users, in order to avoid the app falling into bullies'/harassers' hands - in case they tried to counter with their own numbers or set an ambush or trap(which may be improbable, but never know).

Not only do I believe this app would be helpful in a general urban type of environment, but also in school settings.

I have little-to-no programming/coding experience/skills, so any and all input on the intricacies of it all, are needed; as well as any other input.

Thank you.

christyleos commented 7 years ago

Would something like this work https://github.com/betterangels/buoy/wiki ? http://buoy.maymay.net/

Buoy was designed for a variety of uses and I think it fits some of the requirements you listed.

srigdon commented 7 years ago

Yeah, or Circle of Six: http://www.circleof6app.com/

phitott commented 7 years ago

Pretty much - THANK YOU both!!

srigdon commented 7 years ago

There's also an encrypted version of Slack called Semaphor: https://spideroak.com/solutions/semaphor

Seems like a safe way to communicate with anyone, and from there it's a matter of setting a safety protocol, such as, "When I type X in Y channel, you all know to do Z."

christyleos commented 7 years ago

Just spoke to the creator of Buoy: Circle of 6 is really limited. The major difference between it and Buoy is that Buoy creates a common operating picture of the incident (shared map, etc.) whereas Circle of 6 just sends one txt to your friends (badly; its map link was broken last time someone tested it). So Buoy is a superset of Circle of 6 but Circle of 6 doesn't require anyone to communicate/friend each other ahead of time to use the app.

srigdon commented 7 years ago

Also want to flag this resource for anyone who needs it: https://www.splcenter.org/reporthate